EXACTLY WHAT’S GOING ON RIGHT NOW?

The Requiem Project had a binding agreement to lease the Emery Theatre in order to restore it. The people who control the building reneged for no cause and no reason, so we are suing the owner of the building and their agents.

In the process of preparing for the lawsuit, here is what our attorneys discovered in their fact-finding:

The University of Cincinnati, a public institution operating with our taxpayer dollars, literally gave away a public [i.e. taxpayer-owned] building via a sweetheart $1-a-year 40-year lease to a private company [the Emery Center Apartments] along with almost $3 million [of our taxpayer] dollars while claiming they were just doing it so they can renovate the Emery Theatre.

This questionable deal enabled the private company to collect luxury apartment rents for 15 years in a publicly-owned building… thereby also evading Cincinnati city taxes (because university-owned buildings are exempt from property taxes).

Worse, along the way, UC actually allowed the developer to demolish and destroy the Emery’s bathrooms, balcony and stairs so they could build even more luxury apartments.

And oh by the way, close to $5 million taxpayer dollars disappeared into thin air and absolutely no renovations were ever performed. UC and the Emery Center Apartments management never re-opened the theatre. In fact, it is closed today without a plan to reopen (ever).

WE THINK THIS STINKS. If you agree, the time to express support and demand accountability is NOW.